The late Margaret De Patta (1903–1964) was one of the 20th century's most seminal jewelry designers. Originally trained as a painter in her native California, De Patta turned to jewelery making after crafting her own wedding band in 1929. Since then, she's been churning out bold, carefully crafted and conscious-driven wearable pieces of art.

Since 2006, Danish product and furniture designer Nina Tolstrup of Studiomama has been making quite a name for herself since relocating to the UK. “I had no contacts or networks here,” Tolstrup recalls. “I just picked up the phone and called Habitat and asked to speak to Tom Dixon.” Dixon fortunately took that call and later commisoned her to design a range of bathroom accessories made from half-inch stainless steel tubes. Following her inital success and a brief four years off to be with her family, Tolstrup came back with a bang—she placed first at Design Nation's Eureka exhibition and picked up the Best Contribution award at London's 100% Design Festivial in 2007. Most recently, she just completed renovating an aging London workshop with her husband, Jack Mama, a creative director specializing in sustainability. Photo by: Ben Anders

The living room in 2 Voss Street located on a corner of London's East End, was designed and constructed by Studiomama. Various products from Studiomama such as the 1 x 1 floor lamp and Castaway animals for art company Phillips de Pury dress up the renovated space. Photo by: Ben Anders

Crystal Ellis, Stephanie Beamer, and Hillary Petrie are the three masterminds behind Brooklyn-based design studio Egg Collective. The three met while studying architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and have been collaborating ever since. Brass touches, repetition, and angularity are few characteristics found in their work. Most recently, the studio was recently honored with the ICFF Editors' Award for Best New Designer.

The trio's blackened steel based Bradford table plays to the theme of individual pieces that can be grouped as a whole. Prices range from $610 for the triangular wood-topped table to $1,290 for the stone hexagon.

In 2005, Chandra Greer opened up a Chicago shop dedicated to all things letterpress and screenprint designs. “We like to think of ourselves as a lifestyle store grounded in stationery. We’re not interested in ‘what sells’; we’re interested in what allows our customers to express themselves and to make deep, personal connections in the most lovely, distinctive, and powerful ways possible. There’s a lot in the world that can bring people down. We want to lift people up," says Greer. Photo by: Nathan Kirkman

Since the 1980s, San Francisco philanthropist Ann Hatch has been a critical figure of the arts. She founded the Capp Street Project, an arts residency in the Mission district, cofounded the Oxbow School, an arts program for high school students in Napa, California, and most recently, the Workshop Residence launched in August 2011. For up to two months, Ann Hatch invites an artist to brainstorm, design, and create bespoke products to later make available for sale to the public. Recent invited artists include Belgian fashion designer Dirk van Saene, Paris fashion designer and artist Aurore Thibout, and SF-based graphic designer Jennifer Morla. Photo by: Christie Hemm

Swedish designer Monica Förster's work (here in her Stockholm studio) can best be characterized as experimental with a keen curiousity for new materials and technology. Förster has been awarded numerous awards such as the Future Designer Days Award and Designer of the Year, Sweden. Clients include Cappellini, Tacchini, E&Y Japan, and Offecct. Photo by: Felix Odell

Open to the public for three days a week, Förster's makeshift showroom in her studio features the designer's yellow Cirle lamp, an asymmetrical Drop stool, Umbrella pendant lamp, Mix bowls and vases, and a mauve Spoon chair. Photo by: Felix Odell

Interior designer Kathryn Tyler (seen here at her home in Fakniyth, England) founded Linea Studio in 2004. Since then, the UK-based designer has been outfitting various interiors such as a oak slatted cafe, a secondary school in Cornwall, and The Falmouth Townhouse. Photo by: Andrew Meredith

London-born Zoë Ryan has been bringing her sharp curatorial eye to the design circuit of museums and galleries around the world, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. “Shows are never about a single work,” Ryan says. “They’re about the relationships between them all. I see the gallery less as an end point, and more as the point at which we, and the public, really start to explore.” Photo by: David Robert Elliot

Gisue Hariri and Mojgan Hariri, founders of the New York–based firm Hariri & Hariri, spent their childhood years growing up in rural Iran building “primitive architecture” with chicken wire, plastic tarp, cinderblocks, and scrap wood. “We didn’t have many toys but we had a lot of outdoor space, so every day we’d create an environment. That kind of freedom, having the outlook that you can make anything and create your own world—that definitely planted the seed of who we are today.” Today, they are at the top of their game as the heads of one of the most progresive architecture firms in the United States. Projects range from single-family houses to luxury apartment complexes. Illustration by: Jonathan Puckey

The Sternbrauerei residential development in Salzburg, Austria (seen here), inspired the faceted, gemlike fixtures they created for AFNY and Rapsel’s Crystalline Bath Collection and their Swarovski-fabricated Kryptonite jewelry collection. “We’ve always liked to have continuity and flow, where everything starts to relate to each other in language, form, and materials.”